1 day ago
11
Ministers are considering tweaks to soften their controversial welfare cuts before a crunch vote in parliament next month.
The government is examining a potential change that could allow up to 200,000 people to keep their disability benefits by tweaking assessment rules.
In March, Labour announced plans to save £5bn a year by overhauling the welfare system, including by cutting personal independence payments for disabled people.
The proposals have alarmed many Labour MPs. More than 100 signed a letter saying they could not support them at the vote.
Ministers are looking at potential tweaks to mollify Labour backbenchers. The Financial Times reported that one of the changes being looked at is a tweak to the proposed Pip assessment rules so that individuals who receive a high overall score continue to be eligible, even if they do not receive at least four points in any category.
A government source told the Guardian this was “an option they’re considering”, although sources in Downing Street and Whitehall denied it was on the table.
Under the government’s planned changes, claimants would not qualify for Pip unless they scored a minimum of four points on a single daily living activity. Assessments score the difficulty from 0 to 12 that claimants face in a range of living activities such as preparing and eating food, communicating, washing and getting dressed.
Another potential tweak could mean more time is given to claimants who lose access to one disability benefit to apply for other support they may be eligible for. The Times reported this week that benefit claimants could be given longer “transitional periods” to ease the impact of losing support.
Keir Starmer has been under pressure over his welfare cuts since they were blamed for Labour’s poor local election results in England this month. Ministers are looking at potential changes to the disability benefit cuts as a way of staving off a major backbench rebellion against them.
Last week the prime minister announced a U-turn over the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, which is worth up to £300 a year and was taken away from 10 million people in one of the Labour government’s first moves last July.
At prime minister’s questions last Wednesday, Starmer told the Commons he would ease the cut by changing the threshold to allow “more pensioners” to qualify again.
The government has yet to set out more details on what the change will mean, but Angela Rayner said last weekend that the payments would not be restored in their entirety.
Nigel Farage has sought to outflank Labour on welfare by committing to fully reinstating winter fuel payments and scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, urged the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap on Wednesday and said it was “damaging for lots of families in Wales”. She has previously criticised the winter fuel cut.
Starmer told a press conference on Thursday that he was looking at “all options” to drive down child poverty when asked if he would like to get rid of the two-child benefit cap. “One of the proudest things that the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty, and that’s why we’ve got a taskforce working on this,” he said. “I think there are a number of components. There isn’t a single bullet.”
